Happy Friday loves! The weekend is finally here and for today's post I thought I'd share a favourite recipe of mine, banana bread. I love me some banana bread and if you're a day one reader you'll know that I've shared one of my banana bread recipes before. It is just the perfect treat when you need something a little sweet and it's definitely a crowd pleaser if you're baking for friends, family or a bake sale. Today's recipe is a little bit different from my previous one and is more waistline friendly for those of us watching our weights. It's still got the same great taste but with fewer calories and absolutely no sugar because I've used Natvia Natural Sweetener.

If you've never heard of Natvia it's a natural sweetener derived from the Stevia plant. Not only is it made from 100% natural ingredients but it also has a low glycemic index making it ideal for diabetics. It can be used for cooking and baking and it tastes amazing. I often use it in my breakfast porridge and also use it to brew my iced coffees but today's recipe will be my first attempt at using it for baking and I must say the results were great. If you don't want to take my word for it I suggest you try out the recipe and decide for yourself.

BANANA BREAD RECIPE

Ingredients

2½ cups of oats

8g of stevia

2 tsp of cinnamon

1 TBS of baking powder

4 or 5 ripe bananas

2 eggs

2 tsp of vanilla

2 TBS of olive oil

Raisins, nuts or shredded coconut (optional)

Recipe

Preheat your oven at 180'C/350'F and grease your bread tin.

In a blender, blend the oats until it has a flour consistency, then sift into a bowl.

Add all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly.

In another bowl, mash the bananas and add the liquid ingredients.

Whisk the wet mixture until you no longer have big pieces of banana.

Pour the wet mix into the dry ingredients and mix until everything is well mixed.

Add any additional nuts or raisins or whatever you want. Get creative and add whatever tickles your fancy.

Pour your mix into your bread tin. I had some mix left over so I poured it into some muffin cases but learn from my mistakes and just grease your muffin tin and pour the mixture directly into that. This will ensure the paper does not stick to your muffins which was the case for me once the muffins had cooled. Oops.

Bake at 350'F / 180' C for an hour or until a toothpick inserted into your bakes comes almost clean.

Serve with custard and enjoy.

As you can see from the pictures my banana bread was a success. Not only did it taste amazing but it also had a great soft texture despite using oat flour. This is because I made sure to blend my oats to as fine a consistency as I could get them and I also made sure to sift them. Adding the olive oil also makes for a softer and moist bread that does not dry out.

You can serve your banana bread with custard or you could lightly toast it and add some jam or honey. I absolutely love this recipe and the banana bread is the perfect guilt free treat.

As Always I encourage creativity so feel free to add and subtract certain ingredients to tailor make this recipe for your preferred taste. You can also make this recipe vegan by using flax eggs instead of eggs and you'll still get the same result. I really hope you enjoyed this quick and easy recipe and please do let me know if you try it out in the comments below. If you decide to try it out I'd love to see a picture so tag me on Instagram and Twitter!